When her family finally learned where Susan was, their first question wasn’t about her health.
“Has she signed anything?”
Then they asked about the house.
Her bank accounts.
Her will.
And a few days later, they showed up at my door.
“We’re calling the police,” Tom shouted. “And we’re going to find out what you’re really doing with her behind that closed bedroom door.”
At that moment, I heard Susan’s weak voice from inside.
“Jake…”
I looked at the clock.
8:58 PM.
Two minutes to go.
I closed the front door and walked to Susan’s room.
The small bedside lamp was glowing.
Susan was waiting for me.
I pulled the old wooden chair beside her bed.
The clock turned to 9:00.
She looked at me.
“You have to finish it tonight, Jake.”
My hands began to tremble.
“I don’t know if I can.”
“You’ve been running from it for five years. Enough.”
I sat down.
Outside, her relatives believed I wanted Susan’s house.
The neighbors thought we were having some kind of secret romance.
But none of them could possibly imagine what was really happening inside that room every night, hidden from everyone else.
Want to know what happened next? The continuation is in the first comment 
But nobody could have imagined that every night at 9 PM, we were actually talking about a man who had died five years earlier.
A man whose side I had been by on the final night of his life.
A man whose death I had blamed myself for every single day for five years.
I could barely say his name.
“Mark…”
Susan’s eyes filled with tears.
Mark was her only son.
And my best friend.
Then Susan took my hand and said something that made everything inside me go cold.
“Jake, you’ve believed the wrong thing for five years. There’s something about the night Mark died that I never told you.”
I lifted my head.
“What?”
She opened her mouth to answer, but at that exact moment, the sound of a police car came from outside.
Susan looked toward the door.
Then back at me.
“Let them come in. Maybe it’s time everyone heard the truth.”
There were three hard knocks on the door.
Loud.
Clear.
“Police.”
I stood up, but Susan didn’t let go of my hand.
“Jake.”
I turned toward her.
